When is it time to just buy a new computer

There are cases where we feel it IS in our customer’s best interest to just buy a new computer – and we’ll let you know if that happens to be your case. People have brought us or asked us to work on their 10 year old computer and honestly, it costs in MANY cases more to fix an old computer than it is to buy a new computer and pay us to transfer your data to it!

Sometimes, it’s just time to buy a NEW computer.

You may want it fixed, but…

The time we have to sit and watch the computer do something that would only take 10 minutes on a newer computer can take an HOUR (or longer) on some of these old machines – and the only thing we have is our time and we have to charge for it. Just because something sounds simple, it doesn’t mean we can do it for pennies. If we’re sitting there watching a dog slow computer just do simple things, the hours can add up fast. And when they add up fast, it frequently is going to cost you more than it’s actually worth. With the price of new computers at a relative all time low, new computers can be picked up cheaply!

You STILL will have a dog slow computer

Many people think that if a computer technician comes by and works on a computer, it’s going to automagically start running like a new computer. Well, it does – like a new-year-old computer. Sometimes you will see some awesome speed improvements if you have a virus chewing up your computer, but your computer will STILL not be running like your neighbor’s new computer with Windows 7 on it and sporting a fast terabyte hard drive and 8 gb of RAM with a quad core processor. There’s a lot of reasons to NOT fix any computer older than about 5-6 years old and very few to fix them. We’re happy to talk to you and help you understand your options and let you know the pros and cons of those choices. We want you to get the best value for your money and be happy with your decision long after we leave!

General Upgrade Indicators

If you’re running ANY operating system prior to Windows XP such as Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 2000, or Windows ME, it IS time to upgrade without question. In a few circumstances with Windows XP, it might be in your interest to have a fix applied rather than buy a new computer depending on your computer needs and usage. But those are the exceptions and not the norm. If you’re running Windows XP and you have more than a minor problem, we can point you to some great computers that WILL fit your budget. We’ll get your data transferred from your old computer to the new and make sure you’re all up and running with a smile on your face before we leave!

We discover that it is a motherboard issue. The motherboard is main guts to your computer. While motherboards can be replaced, they can be a 2-3 hour thing. Additionally, if your computer is very old, odds are good that we will need to ALSO replace the processor, all the memory, possibly the power supply and then frequently have to do a reinstall to get the proper drivers in place. Average cost to replace all of that – maybe 250 bucks in hardware and then 2-3 hours of labor. Before it’s all said and done, you’ll spend $500 or more. IF it’s a newer computer, we may be able to reuse the memory and processor, but if your computer is more than a couple years old, things change pretty rapidly and the parts become increasingly harder to find and take longer to get.

Buying a new computer costs

We can find you $300 computers ALL day long that will meet the needs of 90% of our customers. Most people seriously just check their email and do some web browsing. They may edit a Word document, or run Quicken. None of these take much horsepower at all. And with the way technology changes, who knows what will be just around the corner?? Even if you go out and buy some top of the line computer and blow a grand on it, with all the changes in technology, it very well may be obsolete JUST as quickly as that $300 computer.